1693. CONSTITUTION (The Federal), Necessity for.—
Our new Constitution has
succeeded beyond what I apprehended it
would have done. I did not at first believe
that eleven States out of thirteen would have
consented to a plan consolidating themselves
as much into one. A change in their dispositions,
which had taken place since I left
them, had rendered this consolidation necessary,
that is to say, had called for a federal
government which could walk upon its own
legs, without leaning for support on the State
Legislatures. A sense of necessity, and a
submission to it, is to me a new and consolatory
proof that whenever the people are
well-informed, they can be trusted with their
own government; that whenever things get
so far wrong as to attract their notice, they
may be relied on to set them to rights.—
To Dr. Price. Washington ed. ii, 553.
(P.
1789)
See 1648.
